“The greatest obstacle to the practice is one’s own prejudices
based on one’s own preferences”

हानमेषां क्लेशवदुक्तम् ॥२८॥

hānam-eṣāṁ kleśavad-uktam ॥

PYS 4.28

I’m contemplating this sutra a lot recently; it’s the backdrop to my practice. It’s intrigued me since my teacher first introduced me to it. What are these preferences? In the physical body? Or deeper than that? From where do they arise? And how are preferences a hindrance to practice?

Of course it all starts with āsana, that’s the practice ground. The body is my temple the āsanas are my prayers. I’m trying to observe what my preferences are — classes of poses, particular variations of an āsana, habitual modifications that perhaps I’ve outgrown now, inhale or exhale, left or right. Observation is the first skill. Then I trust I’ll find some wisdom to proceed.

His writing (yoga of Heart, and The Promise), but first a series of videos on the YogaAnytime.com website. Utterly transformational. He gives an introductory little talk (30 minutes) on the website series of videos that really resonated with me. I listened to it about 10 times, I think!!

I find preferences to go beyond asanas and into life’s practice: The preference of how I want things to be vs. the way things are. When I hold too tightly to what I want vs what is, I and my practice suffer.